Season 2 Episode 15: Cultural and Social Pressure

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In this week's episode we discuss when pastor's should use the pulpit to speak about political, cultural, and social issues of the day.

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Transcript

Zach Leonard 0:02

A good shepherd is not known by how gently he pets the sheep. A good shepherd is known by how well he protects them and feeds them. John MacArthur. Welcome to the Small Town Church Podcast, the weekly podcast where we discuss all aspects of being in a small town church. Whether you are a member on staff or have just begun attending a church in a small town, this is the podcast for you. Welcome back to the Small Town Church Podcast. We are in uh season two, episode 15, and this one's gonna be a fun one. Um we were talking before we hit record. Um this could go a number of different ways. Uh it could stay calm, or one of us might get fiery. We'll just see how it goes. Um this is one of two episodes that I've kind of been looking forward to on this episode or on the season. Um, the next one that we're going to do next week is AI, and that's the one I'm looking forward to because it's just it's culturally relevant in 2026, and I think it's a good thing to have a an idea about it, but that's for next week. Right now, we're going to be talking about how to handle cultural and social pressures, politics, things of that nature, and how we need to handle it from the uh the the pulpit, if you will. Um I now realize that I did not actually introduce myself, but just jumped right into the episode. So if you're just joining us, um and this is your first episode, you picked a doozy to to uh listen to. Uh, but I'm one half of the co the hosting team, Zach Leonard, and I'm joined as always by my partner in crime, Brad Borgren. Brad, how are we doing? Doing well. Good. It's uh this is gonna be an interesting episode because we live in a pretty divisive society, especially in the West. There are a lot of people that want us to affirm their idiosyncrasies, if you will. And so what we're gonna be talking about today is how you should handle yourself in regards to standing up against social pressures, when you should preach against them, um, and things of that nature. So let's kind of break this episode up into two parts, if you will, Brad. Um let's kind of start from the politic side of things. If you've lived in America for longer than about a second and a half, you've learned that for some unknown reason in 2026, the most things, the most divisive topic that you can get people fired up about is politics. And people always used to say that, like, never talk about religion and politics. Um, but it's gotten worse as time has gone on. I used to joke that you never talk about politics in NASCAR because you talk about a way to get rednecks fired up, and that is talk about your favorite NASCAR driver, and it it just gets crazy. But it really has in the in in America specifically, politics has become such a divisive conversation. And so we want to speak to that. What does it mean to godly in a godly manner handle your political beliefs, uh the political beliefs of others, and and go from that nature? Um, so Brad, do you kind of have anything you want to throw out there in regards to preaching politics? Um, that sounds like such a divisive way of stating that, but you know what I mean. Like when when do politics come up in regards to the pulpit?

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Well, I mean, I guess it depends on the pastor, right? That's a good point. You know, for me, I'm I'm not um I'm not one to preach on politics uh often. And I would probably like I probably should more. Like my my niche or my if I'm gonna fall on one side of the the road, it's gonna be to to avoid it unless I do preach on it when it's in the text that you know preaching expositionally, if it's talking about a political issue, if it's talking about abortion or homosexuality or uh things like that, I'm gonna bring it up because it's in the text. Amen. But I'm not going to watch the news and and and derive sermon topics or sometimes illustrations and applications, but not even necessarily um I'm I'm not gonna always run to okay, how does this apply to where we are in a political environment? Um one reason I tend not to do that is because almost everybody in our congregation is pretty much in agreement on uh maybe not on whether we vote Republican or Democrat, but but on the big issues, you know, we're on the whole in agreement on those things. And so it's not a it's not something that I feel like I just need to to talk about week in and week out. Um two, it's it also like for me, it really comes down to and and like almost okay, how do we view eschatology and in times, right? Do we do we understand like okay, we are uh we're living in the millennial age, and things are only going to get better and then Jesus will return, or do we still believe that the millennial reign is before us and things are only getting worse and then Jesus is gonna come back? I fall into that second camp. Yeah, I'm a I'm a premillennial, I'm a post-tribulation person, so uh kind of the worst of all, right?

Zach Leonard 5:41

It's just gonna get bad for the world.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Christians are gonna be during the worst of the worst, like we're not gonna get sucked out. Uh, and Jesus hasn't ushered in the millennial reign yet, that things are getting worse until and they will continue to get worse until they get better. Uh and and because of that, I don't see it as the church's job to enforce the reformation of society. Uh now we should the way that we should reform society is through the preaching of the gospel, right? If we proclaim the gospel, if we make disciples, if we uh if we will work towards the fulfillment of the Great Commission, then yes, society will get better. Um But we look at the New Testament, when I read the New Testament, I don't ever, I don't see very clear, I don't think I see any clear commandments on, okay, we need to do this in the political realm, right? It's almost like all the apostles are like, we're we're gonna do what God has called us to do, and and we're gonna pray that we can live lives of peace while we do it, right? That they don't really mix the two. Uh, and some people may disagree with that. Uh, but again, I think it depends on like I just see things getting a lot worse before they get better. Uh and and so all that to say, going back to politics, like especially in our American political system where we um I mean, with the war going on in Iran, one of the big um the big Keith terms or things that keeps getting thrown out is regime change, right? That there are nations in the world that they don't go through political um changes, and we go through one every four years, right? And so, and it's it's almost like you don't know, okay, a party or a political candidate may seem pro-Christian or anti-Christian, uh, but we really don't know how it's gonna play out until it plays out. And we we can kind of put all our eggs in in a basket and then realize, like, oh, three years later, maybe that wasn't the right choice. And so I'm not that much of a visionary to say, hey, like I can't read the tea leaves and know how things are gonna pan out. And so I don't want to put myself in a position of saying, hey, you need to vote like this because I'm voting like this and because this is right, when in three years we may look back and say, some of it was and some of it wasn't, right? But is it really a hill to die on? Right.

Zach Leonard 8:20

And that's that's a good point. And I I I will say something that that comes up for me is a lot of what I will speak out against, if you will, are things that either physically harm other people or will actively erode society. Um and what I mean by that is in this last election, I'll I'll just say I actually didn't vote for either major candidate. And the reason why was one very specific issue, and that was abortion. I believe that abortion is the abhorrent evil of our day. Um and we absolutely need to be speaking out against it. And you would agree, if it comes up in the text, you're gonna speak out against it. And also, I I feel like I should, and and forgive me for talking for you, Brad. In conversations that you're having outside of the pulpit, if it comes up, I know you, you're gonna have a hardline stance on it, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Um and abortion is evil, right?

Zach Leonard 9:26

100%, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

But point is been evil from Exodus through Carod and beyond, right? All social injustice towards children and the vulnerable, right? Right. If we can't care for widows and orphans, uh then we've missed everything else when it comes to religious life.

Zach Leonard 9:49

So I didn't actually vote because neither one of the candidates actually put forth anything that like for me, anything short of saying abortion is evil and we're gonna work to ban it, I I'm I'm not interested. I understand the argument that some people have of picking the lesser of two evils. Like I get that. Like I really and truly, I understand their argument, and I didn't hold it against anybody. A lot of people held it against me for for not picking a side, but that's a hardline stance for me, one that I'm not going to back down on. And and I'm gonna be honest, as a pastor, for me at least, and I realize everybody has their difference of opinions, for me at least, if if someone is going to be wishy-washy, especially if that person claims to be a Christian, on abortion, um homosexual marriage, which is an oxymoron, um, but also the uh the adoption or surrogacy by gay couples. Of those three things for me, um, if you are a Christian in the political sphere and you are not adamantly speaking out against them, I have no interest in you. Uh just point blank. I you can tell me all the social programs you want to, you can tell me all the different things you want to, all the ways you're gonna make my life better. I'm not interested because of those those things right there. Um and and there are multi there are reasons why. I mean, one, we're not I'm not I'm against murdering babies. There you go. The second one, um the the gay marriage thing, is because true biblical marriage is a God-given gift and it is for the betterment of society. So if I actually want society to be better, I'm going to speak out against the things that are going to drag it down, right? Um but I'm a lot like you in regards to preaching against something. If it if I'm preaching against something to a congregation that believes the exact same thing as me, what exactly what exactly am I doing? Now, something may be need may need to be defined, if you will, you know. Um for me, um the sermon that I'm preaching on this week, um, I I have the honor of being able to bring the word. The sermon that I'm preaching on this week, spoiler, well, actually, not spoiler alert, because this will already have happened, um, because we're batch recording, um, is about marriage. Um, there are um marriages in our church that need to be brought the word. That doesn't mean that we're falling apart. We're all human, right? My marriage needs work, right? It we my wife and I are actively working towards a godly marriage. And there are, this is something that I saw in the text and said, you know, our congregation could benefit from this. And so I'm preaching to that. That doesn't mean I'm necessarily preaching out against some abhorrent sin or, you know, all of our churches running around on each other and I've got to preach, like, that's not where I'm getting at. But I saw a need and I'm preaching to the need. That's where preaching against a sin is, you know, if you have a congregation that is got a lot of divorced people in it, you may want to preach some sermons on divorce, right? If you come into a church that you take over and there are several couples that are cohabitating and they're not married, you're gonna want to preach a sermon against that because that's sin. Just because society is telling us that it's okay, in fact, all the more if society is telling us that's okay, it probably is something we need to preach against. Um I think that it's important, though, on the other side of in the on the politic thing. Um I actually agree with you, and I'll be the first to admit, I'm actively in a season where I'm trying to figure out what my eschatology is. Um I I I run in some circles with some pastors that are just completely on opposite ends of the. I mean, I'm a Southern Baptist in Texas, so you've got your dispensationalists, I've got reformed friends that are on the other side of the spectrum, you're kind of somewhere in the middle, and I'm over here going, I don't have a clue. Like, I didn't like not a, you know, and I have my my leanings, but I'm actively in a season where I realized I haven't paid attention to that as much as I should. And so I'm actively studying that for myself to try and decide where I land. That being said, when I read passages in the Old Testament like Jeremiah 29, not Jeremiah 29, 11, the whole chapter, um, there is an aspect of prospering for the betterment of your society where you're at. And so, to that regard, obviously, if you are, if you're someone who feels compelled to vote, go for it. I'm not, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with voting, and I'm not saying that I'm never going to vote again. I'm saying in this specific election, my conscience couldn't, I just couldn't do it. I could not hold myself to vote for either candidate. I I thought on the on the left, the the Democrat side of things, I thought they were moving too far away from God. And I thought on the right, they were propping Trump up almost to be a God. And I could not line myself with either side. And that's just my personal I don't, I know lots of people in my church that voted for Trump, and I do not hold it against them at all. I I don't, I mean, I I pray for the man every day, just like I prayed for Biden, just like I prayed for Trump the first time, just like I prayed for Obama. Um, and I wasn't even a Christian um during those other ones. I just really I thought it was important to I just had an inkling that I should be praying for my leaders. Um I pray for my president to succeed because he's a man. I want him to put his to draw drop his knee to to the lordship of Christ. But I say all that to say when you read Jeremiah 2911, it tells you to build houses, plant gardens, take wives, give your daughters in marriage because it knows that the when the society is better and excuse me and succeeds, then inherently the believers are going to be better and succeed. And a really, really good way to get the gospel out is for physical needs to be met and for things like persecution and death and that kind of stuff to not be there to hinder your ability to go preach the gospel. So if you you know, if you make your political decisions with those sorts of things in mind, I I get it. I completely understand. Um, and I and I understand that. Um that's just kind of my two cents on on the whole political side of things. Let's actually now kind of pivot. Um that's to the exiles too, though, right? Yeah, those are people already exiled.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

He's writing to the exiles saying, live your life. And and I've always kind of taken that like, hey, you're in exile. Right. You're gonna be there for a while, right? Stop waiting around to get this is a bad word, raptured out of it. Like you're gonna be in it for a while. Yes. Uh live your life. The Babylonians, wherever they were, they were in Babylon, right? Yeah. Babylon. Yeah. Um you're not going to change the king of Babylon. Right. God is gonna do like I'm gonna the Lord is gonna do that. You do what I've called you to do, whether you're in Israel or whether you're in literally, like, I mean, Babylon is the epitome of wickedness throughout scripture. Uh, and whether that's Rome, whether that's Babel uh or Babylon, you know, that just do what I've called you to do. And yes, it is gonna have an impact on society. We we should, I'm not, I don't want to come across thing we we shouldn't care about how our society goes. We should be invested in it and do as much as we can to make it better. I just don't know that it's the church's role to enforce that. I agree completely that because I've been on this side of the world that enforces a lot of the morality things that we agree with. Like they kill people for being homosexual, right? You know, and then they're just as bankrupt when it comes to morality as we are in the West. Right. We just happen to be on the other side of the spectrum on some of those issues. Because if if you take the Lord out of it, if you take God out of it, if you don't trust his word, it doesn't matter what you're enforcing. Um you're enforcing it for your own self. Yeah. And it's gonna lead to ruin.

Zach Leonard 18:41

That's a good point. The last thing that I will say on the political side of things before we actually move into actually what it looks like for a pastor to stand up to social and cultural issues is there's a term that's thrown around, especially in our area of the country, and that is conservative Christian. And I don't really like the term, I'll be honest with you. Um I understand what they're saying, but I'm not I'm not a huge fan of it. What because uh it makes me ask the question which one comes first? Is it your conservatism or is your Christian is it your Christianity? And when those two things are at odds, which one is Trump's? And and and uh it better be your Christianity. Um your your belief structure, your commitment to following Christ should go ahead of everything. Um I mean, you know, you look at it is that Mark where he says to follow me you you be need to be prepared to hate your your father and your mother and sister and brother and wife. And he's not saying that you're actually gonna hate them, but he's but what he's saying is that you need to be willing to choose me over everything. If your family comes to you under threat of penalty of death and says, Recant Christ's name or we will kill you, drop to your knees and accept the sword. I mean, it it's it we have to be willing to put Christ above all, and that includes our political party. And I what I've seen in the West too much, especially in the South, is putting a political party above Christ. And I think we need to be real careful about that when we preach politics from the pulpit. Yeah, we need to make sure that Christ is glorified in all things. And so you will The gospel is gonna change our nation and the world, not a political party. Right. Um so now as we as as we kind of shift gears um and and go on, again, this might be a longer episode. Um let's kind of talk about cultural and social issues and how we as pastors can remain upright in the face of them. So the first thing is the preaching against them. Obviously, from the pulpit, we both agree that is on a basis of where it's needed. Now, I'm not saying there's never going to be a time that you're not going to need to preach something that they that the congregation already believes. I mean, there's a there's a reason why Israel is constantly called to remember. There's a reason why we preach each week, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:17

I mean we should be preaching the gospel every week.

Zach Leonard 21:19

Um hopefully everybody believes that. Right. Um, and so there are going to be times where we need to preach out against something. But in the day-to-day life as a pastor, what are some ways that we can stand for truth? Let me put it a different way. How do we as pastors need to teach our congregations to interact with an unbelieving public when they're being called to bend on something? Um I know that's a kind of a weird way of asking that question. Um but Part of a pastor's job is not just performing the Great Commission themselves, but it's also preparing the church to com perform the commer the Great Commission and sending them forth. And so how can we prepare our church to stand up against social and cultural issues? Because there is a cost on this side of eternity. I mean, you can't, I mean, we just saw the was it wasn't there like an NBA player that was cut for being Christian? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Or he got cut for speaking out against the pride uh pride month.

Zach Leonard 22:35

Like there could be earthly consequences, and so we need to be able to speak to our congregation about that. So Brad, why don't you talk about that for a second about how we can better prepare our congregations for that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

I mean, that is a tough one, and I'm I'm thinking how to respond thoughtfully. Um for me, because I was a missionary, I I still think like a missionary in many situations. And so we were sent into a a culture that we knew was pagan, right? I mean, you you don't get much more pagan than having 300 million gods. Right. You know, or you know, having one God that's just opposed to the biblical God in every turn, right? And so Islam, Hinduism, very pagan, right? Complete opposite of what Christ came to instill on the earth and through his kingdom and his church. But we knew that, right? We knew that, hey, we're not going to like we have to be patient. We have to understand that, okay, Muslims and and Hindus and Buddhists and atheists and whatever they may be, cultural Christians who aren't really who think they're Christians but not, um we can't hold them to the same level of morality as those people who say the word of God is living and active. It is the breathed out inspired word of God, right? And so we I go into those situations thinking, okay, we have to understand that until someone recognizes that, okay, maybe the Bible is correct, they're probably not going to live like it. Right. And so there's we can't hold unbelievers to that standard. Some people may argue with that, um, but I don't see Jesus. He he puts this, he he doesn't lower the standard. The standard is to follow him, right? But he's going to them and he's meeting them where they are. Right. And he's giving them opportunity and he's he's helping them see, okay, this is why you need to follow me, not just either come on or go to hell, right? There's there's that time and there is that patience and and understanding that, yeah, again, people that we interact with here, um, especially in in this arena, when we, you know, I'm talking to people, it's like, you know, the people in West Texas on a Sunday morning, they either want to be in church and they are, or they don't want to be in church and they're not.

Zach Leonard 25:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Like there's nobody wandering around, like, oh, I don't know that church is happening right now. Right. Like, no, it's 11 o'clock on a Sunday. You either want to be there and you are, or you're not. And so the people that we're trying to reach don't want to be there, right? And so we have to, we have to meet them at some level of of connection and and kind of start tearing down some of those barriers of okay, why do you not want to be here? Uh, and and go from there. And that, yeah, we don't water down the gospel ultimately, and we're not gonna water down God's word. Um but I think there's a way to do that in love and to do that um hoping to build bridges more than just either you can believe what I say or you can go to hell, right? Right. There's gotta be more than I don't I don't think that was Jesus' message to anybody other than the Pharisees, and they were the ones that they had already had their minds made up. Everybody else was He seemed to be more compassionate.

Zach Leonard 26:39

Sure, right Absolutely, and that's a great point. And and I would add to that a pastor friend of mine said one time, if you're an unbeliever, I'll put up with your stupid all day long. When you actually at that point bend your knee to Jesus, now it's time to just you need I'm holding you a stand to a standard at that point. And so I think when we encounter unbelievers, we need to understand that some of those thing truths are going to be hard for them to swallow. We're not, and and I think that's probably a good way of of kind of keeping me in check. At no point am I saying you're gonna point your finger down at them and say, Look, you've got to accept my way, or you're going to hell. Um, I think the best way to do it is you stand firm in your truth and you just and you don't back down. And when someone says, Well, I don't believe that's okay, that's that's right, or that's but you say you are entitled to your your belief, but I hold firm to the gospel, I hold firm to biblical truth, and this is what the Bible says. And I once had a conversation with somebody, and this was before I was a believer. I would handle it very differently now. For those of y'all that don't know my backstory, I man, I I'm I'm a I'm ashamed to say I was a cultural Christian for a number of years. I claimed Christianity because I wanted people to like me. It was not because I believed at all. Um, in fact, I had a bunch of book knowledge about the Bible in my head, so I could sound smart in a Bible study, but I was not living any of it. And one of the things that I allowed people to say was, well, you can't use the Bible in an argument because I don't believe the Bible is true. Well, now I would say, Well, I okay, too bad. Um, you know, like this is my source material, and if you want to have a conversation about Christianity with me, we're going to use what scripture says. You can then choose not to take that and go, and I understand that, right, but I'm still going to speak the truth in love, and I'm not going to back down from that. And I think as believers, as pastors, that's what we need to be teaching our flock is don't give an inch. Don't back down on what true on what scripture says to be true. But at the same time, you're not beating it down their throat. At the same time, you need to understand that these people have not seen the light of Christ. For whatever reason, their eyes have not been opened to it. And so it is our job to bring the gospel, it is not our job to make them believe. We are not, I mean, just like Paul said, God is the one who gives the growth. You know, Paul planted, Apollos watered, but it was God that ultimately that gave the growth. We don't understand how God uses us in the Great Commission. We just understand that he does. And so it is our job to go and stand firm in the truth of God's word and bring it to a lost people and trust God to do the work with it. Where we cause a problem is when we back down on any of it and we say, you know what? Yeah, you're probably right. That's probably, and we just kind of we we wiggle with it. Um, the last thing that I will say is that as we close out this episode, the last thing that I'll say before I kick it over to Brad for any final thoughts is that we need to teach our congregations to not be fearful of man. Something I tell my kids all the time, and I'm preaching it to myself too, is what's the worst they're gonna do? Kill us? I mean, you know, like really and truly, like if you're if you're martyred for the faith, okay, great. That why should we be scared of that? If we truly believe what the gospel says is true, and we truly believe that death is not final for us, and it is not it, we just we're just changing locations at that moment. You know, we open our eyes in glory at that point. And regardless of your eschatology, and regardless of where you believe heaven is, and regardless of all this, that, and the other, if we really truly believe that to be absent from the body is to be present from the Lord, what is the work? Yeah, what did I say? From the Lord. Oh, present with the Lord. Yeah, I knew what I meant. See, that's why we have Brad here. Um, is so that he can correct me. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I'm gonna with um if we truly believe that, there is nothing man can do to us that should fear that we should fear. They can't, they can't hurt us enough, they can't kill our family, they can't, like, there is nothing that they can do that will hinder us from preaching the word of God. But if we really truly believe that. And if you have congregationists that are, that didn't sound right. If you have members of your congregation um that are fearful of those things, then that you need to change what you're teaching and start changing about our assurance of salvation and start teaching about the truth of Christ, because that those are some those are some problems there in your congregation. Um, so Brad, that's that's kind of my final thoughts. I'll kick it over to you for last thoughts and then I'll close this out.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yeah, just just staying on that, you know, it's that's what we see in the early church in Acts, right? That the religious leaders that are beating these guys and putting them in prison and stoning them, like they like they realize we can't do any, like we can't do anything to them that will make them stop. Right. Right. And and they realize we have no power over them. If if you don't fear the worst, then people don't have any power over you. Right. And when you realize that Christ has all the power for you, then there's nothing truly to be afraid of. But that's um we love the world instead of loving the kingdom. Um and that's that's where we have to that's the the change we have to make that you're speaking of. And and again, just correct me if I'm wrong, but I I want to say in the gospels, when it we just did the the uh last week, the one on church discipline, when it's talking about judging other people, we have the responsibility to confront our brothers and sisters when they sin. I think the only the only context we're supposed to judge sin is within the church. Is that right? I that's all I've been able to find, yes. That when the when the lost world sins, God is the judge against that, right? Correct. Uh when there's sin in the church, we judge that. Yes. If it's unrepentant sin, we let them be like an outsider. And how do we treat outsiders? Well, we share the gospel with them, right? Right? Uh that we love them, we show them, hey, you need Christ, uh, and this is how you can find Christ. And and so I think if we get those out of whack, we judge the outside world, and then we ignore sin on the inside of the church, and everything's a mess, right? We're we're to be distinct, and the way that we are to be the way the way the the world, or excuse me, the way the church and God's people throughout history have always um been created to reflect his image to all creation is by showing that we have him with us. And um yeah.

Zach Leonard 34:02

That's so good. Uh and I think that's a great place to end the conver or the conversation on this is that stay faithful to your church. Um, you know, like uh yes, speak out against believe the gospel and yeah. Speak out against abhorrent evils. I mean, you know, like we look up to Bonhoeffer because he was speaking out against an abhorrent evil in Hitler. Yeah, I mean, yes, you speak out against abortion, 100%. Like, that is the murder of babies. I know that's one that I've that's a soapbox I've been on a lot this episode, but it is one I feel very passionately about. Um if you don't know, I have five kids. We love babies in our house, and so I just get I get worked up um when I'm thinking about that. But worry about your own sin inside your church. Like, yes, I mean, and and we're not saying don't speak out against evil, but what we are saying is don't neglect the bride. Don't let don't let the the sin that's going on in your church get diseased and nasty because you're so focused on what's outside the doors. Um let's build each other up. Let's be a spotless bride for Christ's return. And and and and just let's just keep plugging along in unity as a church. Well, we thank you for your listenership. We thank you that you have hung on with us for an uh almost the full two seasons now. We're almost at the end of season two, and that's exciting. Um as we look ahead to season three, um, we're in, we're currently in prayer about season three. Um we don't want to do anything that God doesn't just set it before us. Um and so we don't want to push anything farther than it needs to. Um we are entering into a season of prayer about what God has for season three, if there isn't even is a season three. Um we we are going to do exactly what God calls us to do for as long as he calls us to do it. And so um that being said, if you have ideas, if there, you know, if God if if God does call us to continue to do this podcast, we will take a short break over the summer um af after we get the rest of season two um posted. But um if there are things you would like to talk about or or uh hear us talk about, I guess, um contact us. Email us uh thesmalltownpod at gmail.com. This happened last episode, the tickle in my throat. Um but uh reach out to us with questions and those sorts of things, ideas, and we'll we'll take those into consideration. Well, as we close out, we thank you for your listenership. We hope you have a great week. This has been the Small Town Church Podcast. Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Small Town Church Podcast. We pray that you have found this episode useful. If this episode has blessed you in some way, please share with someone else who might benefit from it. If you would like to partner with us, leave us a review so the algorithm can share this podcast with other people. If you have a question, please email it to thesmalltownpod at gmail.com and we will do our best to answer it either in a later episode or in the QA episode at the end of the season. Also, if we can partner with you in prayer in any way, email us so that we may have the honor of joining you in that prayer. Until next time, we pray you delight in God's mercies, which are new every morning, and remember to stay faithful to your small town church.